Thursday, 7 May 2015

ECHOES of the unfinished musical
innovations of late Elder Steve Omodele Rhodes reverberated on the grounds of
Freedom Park two Saturdays ago as the curtain fell on Lagos Black Heritage
Festival 2015 after a long week of cultural performances. Activities at the
festival included masquerade parades at the opening, child artists’ exhibition
and award of Vision of the Child
project, boat regatta and unlimited dramatic performances that had the
inimitable Prof. Wole Soyinka rolling up his sleeves to direct his play The Beatification of Area Boy. Other
plays staged in continuation of extending the dramatic dialogue started with
the coming to town from London of Shakespeare Globe Theatre’s Hamlet were Snapshot by Bode Sowande, Gbekude
and The Tarzan Monologues by Wole
Oguntokun.

But the final night belonged to musical innovators and experimentations,
a fusion of traditional African music with any latter day or foreign notes. And
it played out so seamlessly on the big stage where four musical groups thrilled
the lucky audience that kept faith with the festival organisers. Culture
Advocates Caucus, producers of the Night
of the Poets, had it titled ‘Sound Verses and Senses: A Music-Poetry
Cross-Pollination’ to capture the under-stated if un-promoted, new music genre.

Of
Elder Rhodes, it also said, “Before he passed on six years ago, the art
impresario Steve Bankole Omodele Rhodes had been working on a sound fusion
experimentation through which he desired to explore the relationship between rare
traditional music instruments and western instruments in contemporary urban
Lagos musical forms. He had gone as far as collecting a lot of such rare,
almost extinct instruments and was already researching into their musical
implication for today’s sound… This project is thus a tribute to the unfinished
work of Steve Rhodes”.

On
hand to put Elder Rhodes’ research into practice was Uhuru Sound, made up of multi-instrumentalist, Cef Echefu and
spoken word artist, Rasaq Ivori. But they were not the only performers, with
rare, quaint instruments or talents. After Renaissance Band of Freedom Park opened
the act Captain Jimi Badmus and His Salam Salam Agidigbo Natural Band brought
his seven-man traditional music piece to croak their way through. They burst
the warm evening air with throaty folk songs that also got the audience singing
along.

But
even more striking and heart-stopping was the balladic almost mournful, soprano
tunes of Genevieve Ogu, which she wove into her knitting routine, as some Igbo
housewife doing domestic chores. She was imperceptible at first, as the sound
seemed to come from somewhere far-off, but immensely soothing yet disturbing in
its solemnity that seemed to be rising from a deep well, as it were. But when
she became visible, it was clear something musically rare and enchanting was
happening and it sipped through to the inner recesses of the audience as it
rose into the night. And when it ended, Ogu’s ululations lingered long in the
subconscious; it was a sound impossible to shake off.

Meanwhile, inimitable instrumentalists, Music Director of MUSON Centre,
Jegede was on the kora, with Cef on
his calabashes, bucket that gave Ogu’s voice the needed balladic accompaniment
that enhanced her performance.

Then
the duo of Ayo Ewebiyi and Jumoke Oke burst onto the stage and took to the
rhythmic beating of their pestles on mortar to pelt out poetry in melodic
Yoruba chants. They had bata drummers
and other instrumentalists to back them up. The duo’s gyrations and rhythmic,
alternate beat of pestle on mortar was stuff of housewives on their turf and
reminiscent of ancient times, which organizers envisioned when it said, “The
idea is to have a musical sound infusion on live stage, set in a theme
reminiscent of quintessential times when Africans congregated communally to
display individual or group talents and skills in the village square under
moonlight – oiled by merriment, especially palm wine… a time when priests,
griots and bards would team up with sound makers to tell tales of history and
future to come”.

With
Jegede on his kora and Cef on his half
calabashes, with one filled with water and another upturned into it, and him
sometimes going beserk with the sheer intoxication or even possession by some
unseen music spirit, it was such a rare sight to behold. Ivori supplied the
whimsical poetry that accompanied Cef and Jegede’s instrumentation. It turned out
a night of uncommon sound. At a point, there was a joint performance by the duo
of Jegede and Cef and Captain Badmus Agidigbo band; it was the fusion of
musical possibilities that could be hatched on the spur of the moment. And, did
it work!

Not least was Uche Uwadinachi’s poetic offering to his enchantress, with
Oke being the receiving artner. It was a love borne in the moon and executed somewhere
also unreal.

But
that wasn’t all. Uncle Jimi Solanke wasn’t left out of the musical shindig
designed to wrap up a week of Lagos cultural feast. With Renaissance Band backing
him up, Solanke towed the path of jazz mostly, as against his usual highlife and
storytelling performance. But it seemed that was the spirit of the night and he
yielded himself fully to what had gone before. But he was no less charming in
his act for which he got ovation from the audience that had begun to thin out.
After he finished, columnist Mr. Tunde Fagbemi rewarded Solanke’s efforts with
a bottle of beer at The Grill Station to cap a remarkable performance!

And
it seemed the night had just begun, as Pa Tunji Oyelana was setting up to
perform at the FoodCourt stage. Oyelana sang late into the night. It became a double
reward for those who saw him perform as blind beggar during the 3-day
performance of Soyinka’s The
Beatification of Area Boy. Even age is yet to diminish the vocal power of
this remarkable London-based African minstrel!

Lagos Black Heritage Festival 2015 will no doubt continue to echo in the
minds of Lagosians who took time to be part of it. This year seemed better organised,
with activities that seemed designed to reach to the core of culturally
conscious audiences.